I always like to quote a good buddy of mine (and agree ) .....
"I don't get out of bed for less than $1500.00 a day!"
I don't give out my rates as they are between me and the company but I will say this: "don't sell yourself short"!

My 196 started to act up this spring. If I was plugged in it was fine but it would shut down as soon as I went to battery. My engineer opened it up yesterday and surprise surprise....
I had a screw loose!!!! See attached picture....
I guess over the years the vibration ect let the screw back out. My engineer tightened it all down and it is working great! Just thought I would pass this along should anyone have an issue in the future. Cheers!

I used the trial version of Foreflight. Loved it but it uses an incredible amount of battery. 1% per minute on my iPhone :0
Are you on battery or do you plug in through the a/c? I am interested in going the iPad mini route (almost did) but it is the power issue that holds me back....

I fly with a GoPro. So that IF the SHTF, I can prove I was doing my job properly! To date, none of my bosses have had issues.
Keeps me honest.
I too watched those vids and cringed. Nothing like giving an opposing lawyer ammo if you are doing something stupid and something goes wrong.

I'm sure some of the other instructors (Canadian) here can relate to this. I have had this conversation in the cockpit numerous times with flight instructors (with up to 3500hrs PIC) from the USA coming up to Canada for their conversions:
Me: Ok _________, when we get over the infield, you can show me a full on autorotation to the (spot picked on infield).
Student: Full on? you mean with a power recovery right?
Me: Uh no, I mean full on to the ground....
crickets......
Student: Uh, I have never done one of those...
Me: Never????
Student: Well one, for my instructor flight test.
Me: You mean of all your instruction hours, you guys never did a full on autorotation?
Student: Nope, it wasn't allowed
Me: Well, we are going to do one now...
You get what you pay for in this world. And further to the comments previously made about flight schools. There are bad ones and there are good ones. YOU NEED to go visit them and make an informed decision. If you walk into a flight school and are immediately impressed with what you see, then there is a reason for that. Good schools are successful for a reason. Finally, the comment about them not being Job Placement Agencies is true. They teach. Now that being said, Where I teach on the off season, they have an excellent placement because we do in fact get calls from companies looking for low time pilots. So always remember what I tell my students on day one.... your career starts TODAY. Act, train, work, behave accordingly because you may want a reference in the future and every school wants to be able to give you that.....

The army hand out I found interesting and after taking ditching training twice....I would head for the trees....
Like previously mentioned, I can hold my breath and all that in a controlled environment but what if a crack against the helmet renders me unconscious even for a few seconds underwater....
My 2 pesos worth....